Dear Spotify, Bring Your Arse To The States!!!

Since Imeem, among other music streaming sites, are no longer running, I've been on the hunt for the new place to extend my taste in music. I'm not a big iPerson, so suggesting iTunes, an iPad/Phone, or any other iNut-riding software or Internet tool won't work.

There are a couple dope sites and such to check out with that Imeem feel.

8tracks is one I use frequently because it has a creative gimmick to its purpose: come up with at least eight songs for a playlist. The playlist has to have some sort of title or theme to it (even if it is Brian Lehrer's Cooking Mix or Randy Moss' Post Pattern), and I have the freedom of uploading songs from my music collection or adding music other people uploaded to 8tracks. If I stick to just eight songs, it's like having an 8-track on your computer, minus the protruding cartridge.

Another site I like for music sharing and streaming is [INSERT DRUM ROLL]

*adds extra line for dramatic effect*

MySpace! Believe it or not, and amidst the crappy press it got for being Creepsterland, this site is great for sharing music for artists and listeners. It's easy to create playlists, add music, and with the new layout (which Facebook is trying to mimic btw) is easy for folks to share. Although Bandcamp and SoundCloud are good sites for artists to use to socialize with their fans as well as add music, MySpace is just as good. Plus, almost every band uses it, so to the folks I know that snub MySpace on the regular need to fall back, as journalist and bloggers quickly search "[insert artist or band] MySpace music" before anything else.

But back to the topic at-hand.

Spotify is another music sharing and streaming site that has the online and offline option. It's like iTunes, minus Apple's "i" and tunes, Pandora, LastFM, and Imeem, wrapped in one green bow. You can upload your own music, listen to others, make playlists, buy music, play the artist radio, go mobile, tweet it, Facebook it, among other things. Oh, and IT'S FREE! Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, for those in the US of A, it does. Clicking on the "Get Spotify" icon will lead you to this. That's right, a shrugging heifer and information about how they want to have ALL music available on the site for ALL countries or nothing at all.

The researcher and journalist in me went digging for more info on Spotify, finding out that it's a wrangling with Warner's music label. According to TechCrunch back in the summer, despite the app availability on Symbian, Droid and iPhone (and now Windows 7 Phone) Warner does not want Spotify to air out their artists' music for free.

Sounds familiar? It should. Warner and YouTube had the same issue because Warner didn't want YouTube posting their artists videos for free. The difference between the two scenarios is that YouTube had balls, and pulled all of Warner's artists off their site and moved on! And of course, because no label wants to be excluded from press, Warner came running back to make a deal with YouTube.

Now why Spotify won't grow some is beyond me. There is no reason (other than money, and if that's the case then forget coming here) Spotify is not able to do the same for their site as YouTube and generate States users. This software has already won tech awards for their services and has 30,000 of America's musical elite using their site (including Pitchfork, which brought me to Spotify in the first place), so why is it not available for the PEOPLE???

So Spotify, bring your arse to the States! We've suffered without you for long enough. We want the same luxuries as France, Spain and Sweden too! We have even shown you love for the 30,000 people you serve already, why not multiply that by a milli or two?

I hope these questions don't go unanswered, and you find your way out of other people's iPhones and into my laptop soon.

Signed,

Me.

Poem: Those Wal-Mart Ears

Why deal with a market mind when I have a Wal-Mart ear?

My musical taste is like a Great Value box - because getting to the point is all I wanna hear

No need for added pizzazz, or unnecessary do-daas, I could add that on my own

And the artistic abstraction can be left at home

That adds to the price, and my ass is broke

So to think paying a low price for descent quality is to believe I will take it and mope

About the lack of talent and the crap they wrote

When there's plenty of innovation that surrounds you

But no, you'd rather take what you can get at a price on the low

It's amazing how our individuality clouds the sun that broadens our horizons

We won't embrace ALL the stars, but wanna see what makes Orion

So with our Wal-Mart ears we don't peruse through the aisles

We take them to the nearest floor person and say

"something for my workouts is what I wanna find"

So we follow the clerk through aisle #5, and select the one that's most convenient

Convenient to our ears, and not to mention the thighs

Because what we want NOW has nothing to do with our minds

We don't wanna make our own playlist, we let playlists make us

iTunes FTW and to shake us

Break us for 15 songs about a break-up

Caking up on my misery and hang us

With our Wal-Mart ears

When iTunes started making generated playlists is when iLeft

iRather tend to my needs on a For Me By Me basis

That way I can find the root of my problems

Because if I depend on a systematic list I have to let a computer solve them

And quite frankly, numbers may not lie but there's no way to evolve them

Or evolve from them

Think, the square root of 9 will ALWAYS be 3, so when a monkey wrench is thrown in, where will my solution be?

So from now on I'll use my market mind for my musical needs

And from now on, I seek guidance from an organic source, me

Even if it starts from the ground and expands like the sea

My musical taste stands pure, on the shores that I see